1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a block and a retainer for wire-connected terminals, and to a wire connection process line using the block and retainer. The retainer accommodates a terminal-connected wire which is juxtaposed with a terminal inserting unit that automatically inserts terminals mounted on wires into a connector housing to form a wiring harness for an automotive vehicle or for a copier.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art includes processes for automatically manufacturing a wire assembly, such as a wiring harness for an automotive vehicle, a copier or the like. The prior art process for automatically manufacturing a wiring harness includes steps for producing a terminal-connected wire. These prior art process steps include cutting a wire to a predetermined length, peeling the insulation coating at the opposite ends of the cut wire, connecting terminals to the peeled ends of the wire and inserting the terminals of the terminal-connected wires into a connector housing. Prior art systems that perform these steps along a single production line are disclosed, for example in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications Nos. 57-170409, 58-25014, 5-234659 and 6-260260. The connecting process for inserting the terminals of the wire-connected terminals into connector housings requires a long time as compared with the producing process for producing the wire-connected terminals. Accordingly, the production efficiency of wiring harnesses is disadvantageously restricted in the prior art systems where the producing process and the connecting process are performed on a single production line.
The prior art also includes wire harness producing systems in which the producing process and the connecting process are performed at separate lines. This prior art process includes a transfer step in which wires with terminals mounted thereto are gripped and transferred to hands or clamps of a terminal inserting unit.
An example of a prior art system that uses separate lines for the producing process and the connecting process is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-223646. This prior art system enables the mounting of special terminals to wires, such as the mounting of specially sized terminals or the connection of a plurality of wires with the same terminal. The prior art system shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-223646 requires two separate terminal mounting lines: one for mounting standardized terminals and the other for mounting special terminals. This prior art system then performs a transferring step in which the wire-connected terminals are temporarily placed on a stock carriage, and subsequently are manually transferred to an inserting station upstream of the terminal mounting line. FIGS. 7 and 13 of Japanese Unexamined Publication No. 6-223646 show the inserting station for performing the transferring step. As part of this transferring step, the opposite ends of the wires are manually placed on a wire setting table, gripped by a pair of hands or clamps, and forcibly inserted into teeth of a comb-like wire grip.
The above described prior art transferring step requires precise positioning of the terminal portions of the wire-connected terminals with respect to the hands or clamps in order to securely perform a succeeding step by the hands (e.g. a step of inserting the terminal portions of the wire-connected terminals into a connector). However, the wire setting table of the aforementioned prior art is mainly adapted to transfer the wires to the hands when the wires are forcibly inserted into the teeth of the comb-like wire grip and, therefore, cannot position the terminal portions. Further, it is a common practice to process a plurality of kinds of terminals at one production line in order to manufacture a wire assembly. Thus there is a desire to produce many kinds of wire-connected terminals in small quantity by easily changing the kind and the combination of kinds of wire-connected terminals partly locked during the transferring step.
Prior art wire harness producing systems in which the producing process and the connecting process are performed at separate lines, are not well suited to automation because it is difficult to transfer the terminals of the terminal-connected wires to the terminal inserting unit while manually positioning them. Therefore, it is necessary to make an undesirable compromise of manually inserting the terminals into the connector housing as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-223646.
In view of the above problems, an object of the invention is to provide a block and a retainer for wire and/or terminals, in particular wire-connected terminals, using the same and a wire connection process line using the same, which are capable of easily positioning the wire and/or terminals, in particular wire-connected terminals, to be retained and changing the kinds thereof.